Jakarta on A "Business Trip" :p

8:26:00 PM

Hi guys!

Last month as you know, i went to Jakarta with the lovely Donna from Collection for a business purposes. But for me, it was more a mini staycation (even though in a different city!), full of lounging around in a nice hotel room, girly chit chat with another girly girl (that i barely knew but connected in a lot of level with so it felt like we've known each other for a lot longer anyway), even squeezed in some shopping!

There were a lot of firsts for me. The first "business" trip (i keep on using the " because i didn't feel like i was working at all) for me, the first time i stay in a huge hotel room all by myself (and not felt too spooked about it, thankfully haha), first time i went to an important meeting decked in a formal wear haha (in my line of (previous) works i don't necessarily even need to own a single formal wear you know! And i am such a crazy gyaru person in real life that my sis was horrified when i heard about all this and specifically told me "Please don't dress up in your usual Harajuku craziness!!!" But actually since i was representing such a cool brand-Collection-she shouldn't worry too much. Donna wasn't too formal either!)

In short, i'd i had tonnes of fun (not at all what i expected out of a business meeting!), had lots of new experiences, and learnt a lot-even about myself. I rediscovered myself again, that i am an independent, confident woman. You know, sometimes after you've been married for a while and you're so so close to your spouse like you're joined at the hip, it's hard to remember that you CAN actually fend for yourself. That you can actually function without the other person. I played the role of a (bitchy) damsel in distress for far too long that i forgot the real me sometimes haha. Yes, all that within three days. Cool or not, huh?

Anyway, don't expect an in-detail business related post here coz of course that's not going to happen! First of all, it'd be boring, this is not a self improvement/motivation/business-related blog after all! Second of all, everything was obvi confidential lah hahaha. So what would be the content of this entry? Hahaha... UOTDs and my haul while i was there lah hahaha...

Let's start with my OOTD of the day we left for Jakarta from Surabaya, i always opted for something modest (haha) and comfortable whenever i fly anywhere. And never forget to tote a jacket to keep myself warm in the freezing airplane.

Red Dress : Online, Heart Necklace : Online

I Love this kind of silhouettes, it's feminine and effortless and the spandex cotton material is oh-so-comfortable, i can do anything with it (well, probably not rock climbing, but you get my drill..). I love it so much, i own the same design in various other colors. Whenever i'm too lazy to even think of mix and matching my stuffs, i just throw one of them on and voila, i'm ready to go!

Simple FOTD for the flight, whenever i dress in red i would put on red lipsticks. I go through phases of using one lipstick for weeks and even months (yes, because i am too lazy to change the lippie i carry), and at that moment i was using my new Ristra red lipstick from July VT (i will review it sometime in the future, it's still lining up behind the other stuffs i meant to review).

To be honest, the most influential thing to build my wardrobe and make up around most probably are my nails! I was wearing red nail polish at that time, that explain the red lippies and eventually-the dress. And right now (since Taiwan actually) i still have my blue sparkly gel polish on so i've been wearing blue most of the time hahaha.

I realize most of my FOTD look the same hahaha, i am no pro so i just do whatever i think look good on my face and stick with the technic

I decided to bring my sturdy, spacey and natural looking *and formal enough for a business meeting, don't you think? At least i wasn't bringing my baby pink lacey bag or something hahahaha* Natural Basic Beauty bag that served me so well on my European trip! Definitely one of my very fave bag to bring on my travels!

We stayed in Crowne Plaza (Semanggi) in Jakarta, a very nice hotel, i should say. Once we arrived in Jakarta, we went to the hotel to check in and freshen up a little bit. Well, maybe Donna did, i went on and snap every corner of the hotel's room immediately instead :p.

Like most four or five starred hotels in Indonesia, the room's super spacious, even from the entrance

Oh, i do have one thing to complain about my room. Since it's apparent since i first opened the door, i need to get it out of the way first! The receptionist asked me if i'd like a non-smoking room (well, of course), but as soon as i opened the door... Well, i was assaulted by strong smoke smell! I told myself to turn the AC on and wait for about five minutes, if the over powering smoke smell persist, i would have to ask for another room since it was pretty choking!

Fortunately the smell disappeared soon after. Thing is, the smoke smell would appear whenever i enter my room after being outside for a while, but disappear within a few minutes. Pfffttt. Other than that i am very satisfied with the room, but unfortunately i couldn't say the same about the front office's service, but more about that later.

Plentiful refreshment were ready for me, i ended up making myself cuppas of tea (which is super rare since i don't really drink tea much!) to warm myself since the room was very cold (i tried turning the AC-temp up but then it got really hot zzz there was no in between!) and there's no hunny to cuddle with haha

Super homey and comfy, i miss that room now haha

Huge bed with huge pillows that i unfortunately had to sleep in by myself haha

The room was super clean *as expected from such hotels* and so was the bathroom, for once i wasn't even (too) disgusted by the bath curtain!

Super spacious and sparkling clean bathroom, always the most important part in a hotel for me

Yep, cam-whored in the bathroom immediately

We only went out for a little bit to the mall nearby (not even sure what mall it was, probably Plaza Semanggi? It was fugly haha) for dinner. Donna said she wanted to try Indonesian cuisine but there were not too many choices there (we only went to the first floor, and later the basement) so we finally had dinner at the closest to Indonesian cuisine-serving resto, Solaria. LOL.

Went to the supermarket before heading back to the hotel because i wanted to buy some water *to boil for making teas, etc. No, i wasn't about to boil the tap water! This is one of the very rare occasion where i had to boil the water myself-usually hunny would make sure everything's taken care of-i am super spoilt i know-that i am pretty proud i know how to turn the thing on at all ahahahahaha. Pathetic*, thank God we did because turned out if forgot to bring my toothbrush! Quickly get one there coz i wasn't about to use the one provided by the hotel too, i don't want to hurt my gum...

Woke up early the next day because we're planning to go to one of the malls in Jakarta to check out some stores (work-related, okay! Haha). Donna asked me if i'd like to join her or just stay at the hotel and chill. Well, chilling out sounds great but i can do that later (coz i don't have any work to do for the whole day, only on the next)and i think it'd be much more effective if i show her around (we agreed to go to a mall that i am familiar with, Mall Kelapa Gading) rather than letting her roaming around by herself. Beside, how could i say no to a mall? LOL.

Me, bare-faced and just woken up (that explains the puffiness haha) and getting ready, i always feel glamorous and Kim Kardashian like when i dress up in nothing but a kimono bathrobe hahahaha

That day's OOTD (another dress that i specifically bought that looks passable as a formal wear, but i really didn't have to do that because we only went to the mall that day hahaha!)

White and Blue Stripy Dress : Kiss (TP), White Cardigan : Online

Shoes : Debenhams

Another simple make up on my face, i didn't even put on mascara that day :p.

Seriously loving bathroom lightings :p

Was to embarrassed to take pictures of my breakfast, but then i realize that Donna sometimes snap pictures of her food or random things as well so i quickly lost my embarrassment and merrily snap pictures later on. The breakfast was yummy but they were identical with the last day's anyway, so i'll show them to you later (besides, if you've been following this blog for a while you'd know i always have the same things for breakfasts anyway, i'm so boring :p). Went to MKG to check out some stores like i said, and when we entered Watsons... Oh well, you know how crazy i am about Watsons and there's not a day when i didn't wish we have Watsons here in Surabaya... I couldn't help but purchase some stuffs there. It's just not possible for me not to shop for at least SOMETHING when i enter any Watsons!Since i'm only with Donna and no matter how friendly she is, i still don't know her long enough to ask her to snap pictures of me being silly and feel comfortable about it! LOL. Poor me, i was so happy with my shopping that i snap this myself, yes with the help of my other BFF (other than #Undecided), a mirror.

Woohoo... So happy coz i didn't expect i'd be shopping at all in this trip!

I only got very little things from Watsons, don't worry i totally restrained myself (or maybe because i just arrived from Jakarta-after JB/SG trip-like less than two weeks prior, therefore i've just got my fix from Watsons!).. Here are what i got :

A weird looking Collagen Mask from Esene (never heard of this brand before), was attracted to its weird shape and glittering self hahaha. It was only IDR 14.000 or less

So crumpled and weird looking! I put it on right away that night at the hotel, but i'm gonna write another entry to review it because i'd yap super long and this entry will never end otherwise...

My narcissism definitely has reached another level when i feel the need to show the world my shavers...

And the most (un)important thing i bought there? The SUPER DUPER UBER cute lipbalm :

Cow Lick Lip Balm! How much funnier can a name gets???

It's pretty new in Jakarta's Watsons i believe, it was by a brand named... MooGoo? Sounds like they love using weird names, eh? Totally charmed the pants of the likes of me hahaha. I super love the tiny milk carton package! I haven't even the heart to open it to see how the actual lip balm (pretty sure it'd be ordinary and boring looking though) looks like until now...

It wasn't super cheap either, IDR 67.500 i believe. Tried making myself put it down (because usually even IDR 30.000 would be a bit to steep for drugstore lip balms for me! I'd rather buy the crazy cute Korean branded ones with twice the price) but i simply couldn't... There were about three or four variants and one crazed moment i considered getting all of them but fortunately i snapped out of it and get only one (i think this one's the original flavored one, most probably going to be neutral flavored, i hope! Don't want it to actually tastes of smells like how cow licks would be!!!).

I'm sorry it's just so cute i couldn't stop snapping pictures of it from every angle..

That's good to know! I am not crazily green or anything, but whenever i can i'd like to know that i contributed to make sure the earth stays green

Okay, that's enough cam-whoring moment for the tiny lip balm! We checked out some more stores and department stores until we passed Zara and Donna was like "Can we check Zara out, please?". LOL. Sure we can, Donna! Zara was still having a huge sale back then and yeah.... I walked out of there a few rupiahs poorer. At least i spent a lot less than half that Donna spent *defensive* *defensive*!I went round and round Zara many times, so many pretty things caught my eyes with pretty affordable prices i almost lost it. I could've easily spent MILLIONS *like ahem, Donna* there coz everything was so pretty! But yeah, i just got back from that trip (that i shopped like a mad woman at) and was about to go to Taiwan as well (in a few weeks) that i managed to narrow down to the ones i just couldn't live without haha.

At first i just got these cute tees :

I think they were all the same price, IDR 129.000 each (some could be cheaper, i don't remember, but definitely not more expensive)

Another type of my fave tee, loose, a bit boyish (while i like my dresses super feminine, i love my tees to have a touch of boyishness) with longer sleeves to hide my huge arms

After i paid them all, i still had to wait for Donna to try on load of clothes-my eyes kept on starring on one dress section *sigh*. After pondering for a long long time, i decided to try them on. Bad mistake. Almost always, anything i try on *or even just put in front of myself in the mirror* will definitely upgraded from "something cute" to "something i can't live without" FML. Yes, i am horrible that way. So, of course, i got the dress as well..

White Dress IDR 299.000

The pattern. I didn't buy it because of the pattern though, i bought it because it made me look skinny hahaha, plus it's super duper comfortable. I already worn it in Taiwan! I didn't even know that the back was transparent until a few hours after i worn it hahaha WTF

That's all of my haul! But Donna wasn't done shopping, she did some more in Gaudi. I was guilty of encouraging her (i tend to do that to everybody, i always unconsciously encouraged people to shop more-i guess it makes me feel better about my own spending somehow hahaha) :p, i kinda told her "Well, you gotta buy something by Indonesian brand! Then you can go and tell your friends, i got this in Indonesia! It's from an Indonesian brand!" hahaha, my encouragement worked.

I'm not promoting Gaudi in any way, but they should defo sponsor me hahahaha

Coz i keep on introducing their brand to everybody, even foreigners!

We left MKG soon after and went back to the hotel. Donna asked me if i wanted to stay and shop, but i don't think i should-i already shopped a lot more than i planned to (well, i planned NOT to shop at all WTF) so we went back-Donna finished up her works (poor Donna) while i chilled, watch never-ending TV shows, lounge around the bed, blog-hopping, even finished writing up the invitations for Baby Boy's birthday for his friends!

Met up with Donna again in the evening for dinner, decided to stay in the hotel and had a buffet dinner at one of the restaurant (i don't remember the name of the restaurant, it was called Serambi or something, the same place for hotel's breakfasts) that served Indonesian food (yeah, Donna's not giving up on trying the local cuisine yet, not that she ended up trying much of them haha, it can't be terribly authentic anyway, being in a four (or five) starred hotel like that.

Round 1

Round 2 hahahaha

I had a few more stuffs (those beans salad was devine!), but mainly we were more busy talking! Couldn't stop talking like how girls can be whenever they're thrown in a nice restaurant together! I think we chatted for two hours (or more) straight! The restaurant was almost deserted when we're done!We started to leave the restaurant when we realized we didn't have dessert yet, and then the super nice manager of the restaurant encouraged us to go back and have some cakes! Haha...

Very attracted to this beautiful center piece made of chocolate, a real master piece!

Woke up super early the next morning (because i need at least two hours to shower, wash and dry my hair, and put on my whole face. Actually half an hour from that two hours' always spent to wake myself up hahaha, i'm very very sluggish in the morning!). Donna shares one more trait with me, we're both a little paranoid. Always scared of being late hahaha. We planned to go very early to the meeting place, turned out the place was like, less than 10 minutes from the hotel! So we ended up not leaving the hotel until later on, but that's great because that means we got to have our breakfasts in peace and didn't have to rush!

Oh yeah, no OOTD pictures because i had no time! I freaking out because i was ready like, a minute before our appointed meeting time next to the elevator! Hahaha... Wore a similar dress to the previous day's, only it's baroque floral (black) printed against a creme base+a very formal looking blazer. The dress i also bought specifically for this trip at Kiss haha. I shouldn't worry so much because aside from the solid black top+trousers, Donna topped her look with electric turquoise blazer, matches with the same hue on her nails (she said she was jealous of my painted nails and wanted to paint hers too haha)!

My bfast... the scrambled egg was so good... A good hotel breakfast for me? They have to serve perfect scrambled egg, and this one's pretty perfect!

Left the hotel for the meeting (that went really well), unfortunately our peaceful morning was marred with an incident with Crowne Plaza's receptionists! The receptionists were three women that day (different from the very nice, friendly and professional male one that checked us in two days earlier-when he kept on asking for my passport because he thought i was Japanese *LOL*, there were a LOT of Japanese guests in the hotel) and well, they were less than adequate.

Donna already asked if our taxi service's pick up spot can be re-routed, since we're going to a building nearby-but they said NOPE, no can do. So Donna asked them to cancel the taxi service. They said OKAY! But on the taxi ride to the meeting point, Donna showed me the receipt and they CHARGED us for the taxi service! (IDR 300.000x2, to and from the airport) I called the receptionist but she (with a very snooty tone, like talking to her maid or something) told me that we haven't paid for the taxi service!!

Donna and i consulted the receipt again, and hey, there really were two charges stated! How come they insisted that we haven't paid for the second service? There was a little note under the receipt telling us to call the accounting if there's any questions about the receipt. I called the number they put there, and guess what... The same dummy receptionist received it!!!!I insisted to talk to the accounting, and after a long back and forth, they finally hooked me a up with a much nicer and polite woman. She said the same thing at first, but i told her to RE-CHECK coz i was holding the receipt in my hand i saw TWO charges, then she suddenly back-tracked (like she just realize something) and was like "OH! Oh... yes yes, you've paid for taxi service to the airport already". WTF.Apparently the one who made the receipt made a mistake, they listed the TO the airport taxi service first and the FROM was on the bottom. So whenever i asked them to check, they only read the bottom part and there was only the "from the airport" taxi ride stated. WTF. Too lazy to check to the upper part, ya think? I heard them scuttling and blaming one another on the phone, saying "Who made that receipt? It's upside down! Wrong sequence!". Errr... How's that our problem?Then we asked them if it's possible to re-route the pick up spot, and since she was going round and round and since she spoke pretty good English, i gave up and gave my phone to Donna-asking her to talk to the person instead. In the end Donna said they told us they can re-route the pick up spot, but we're gonna have to pay IDR 250.000 more. WTF? Trying to rip us off much??? Taxi ride from the hotel to the meeting place was IDR 29.000 or something y'know *LOLOLOL*.

So in the end we decided to just go back to the hotel after the meeting (and we already lugged all of our luggage like idiots WTF), that's much better than scrapping IDR 300.000 that we already paid for *FYI, if we just take any taxi from the airport it'd cost us like IDR 180.000 for the more exclusive types and less for the regular types, because our driver from the airport let the meter running so i know how much we should've paid if it's not already charged to the hotel*.

Seriously, i was furious, Donna even more so. It was pretty embarrassing and saddening that Donna had to leave Indonesia with that kind of impression about Indonesians. Always trying to rip people of whenever they can haha. So sad. At least she knows me and #Undecided first so she'd know that not all of Indonesian are like that (she of all people should know that i am nothing like that, with the latest incident that i cannot tell you about, unfortunately :p). So, will i recommend staying in Crowne Plaza? Actually yes, just skip the taxi service! Haha. The hotel can help you flag a regular taxi down without any extra charges anyway! Oh, and hopefully you'll be served by the male receptionists instead of the three useless females. When we went back to the hotel *just to move from one taxi to the other*, they refused to look me in the eyes and still busy shoving the blames to each other. WTF. They should be sacked. And that's all about my first ever business trip! Haha. Not even sure if i'll ever experience a second one :p, but i totally am grateful i got to go to this one! Thanks for reading my random ramblings as usual :p..#Pink

It sounds like you had a top time! Your red dress is so gorgeous and because of the shape it's totally wearable for day and the white dress is so pretty. That chocolate center piece looks amaze, yum yum! I followed your GiG link.